Greenpeace Calls for CLP Shareholders

Reject “High Risk, No Gain” Nuclear

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Press release - 2011-05-12

Greenpeace set up a ‘gambling table’ with the message “Nuclear Energy: High Risk, No Gain” at the China Light and Power shareholders meeting today at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The group condemns the electricity company’s reckless gamble to invest in nuclear energy and put Hong Kong’s safety at stake.

Greenpeace also raised a banner reading “CLP: Don’t Gamble our Future” to ask CLP to reject the SAR government’s plan to increase Hong Kong’s share of nuclear power. The organization asked CLP to immediately increase its investment in renewable energy so as to avoid gambling away the safety and wellbeing of Hong Kong.

Printed with various outcomes such as “nuclear energy takes all” and “citizens lose all,” Greenpeace’s ‘gambling table’ aims to push CLP shareholders to recognize the true cost of nuclear power. Investing in nuclear will not only risks the safety of all Hong Kong citizens, but also the possibility of investing in renewable energy. Additionally, Greenpeace activists distributed leaflets on nuclear energy to CLP shareholders, to provide information on worldwide nuclear accidents of the last few decades, as well as data on the economic losses and casualties of Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Greenpeace campaigner Cheng Kit-yan pointed out that CLP’s investment in nuclear energy will only saddle Hong Kong with environmental and health threats that will last for generations. She said, “Today nuclear industries around the world are subsidized by the public and the government – with the result that local residents bear the majority of the risks of nuclear and the cost of radioactive waste treatment. We call for CLP shareholders, who also live in Hong Kong, to use their authority to ask company executives to immediately reject the government’s proposal to expand nuclear power, so that we can avoid making a foolish investment that endangers our and their own safety.”

She added that China’s State Council has set the liability for nuclear power station operators at an upper limit of RMB 300 million for a one-time accident. So in case of a nuclear leak at the Daya Bay Power Station, nearby residents, including Hong Kong citizens, will only get compensation of no more than 20 Hong Kong dollars. Now that the Fukushima crisis has exposed a series of dangers associated with nuclear power, Greenpeace urges CLP to immediately reject the government’s proposal to enlarge the proportion of nuclear power.